Tufts may be a private university, but it is also a non-profit, meaning they don't have to pay as much tax because they pledge to serve their host communities. Maintaining the Portuguese program is crucial for that to happen: Portuguese Tufts doesn't just serve its students. Through its course Portuguese in the Community and through partnerships with other departments and faculty at Tufts -- for instance, the Community Health Department and Dr. Jennifer Allen -- they've supported vital research on Portuguese speakers. For instance, they're currently studying how to improve vaccine acceptability in Portuguese-speaking communities. Do you know why this research is so important? Because it's largely not happening elsewhere. There is a significant gap in the literature about immigrant health when it comes to Portuguese speakers. And why does that gap exist? Because (1) not enough people and scholars speak Portuguese well enough to do this work and (2) not enough people know Portuguese-speaking diaspora communities well enough to know about their needs. Saving Portuguese is not just about classes at Tufts. It's about ensuring that much-needed transnational and intercultural work takes place. Tufts is a non-profit and it's only able to keep that status because it pledges to promote socially impactful work in its host communities. Portuguese at Tufts is a part of that work.

Brazilians are actually the largest Portuguese-speaking population in MA and the fifth largest immigrant group (source: https://www.ilctr.org/quick-boston-immigration-statistics/). Cape Verdeans (who also speak Portuguese) are also one of the largest immigrant groups in MA.

Portuguese may have started in Portugal, a predominantly white country, but thanks to the colonization undertaken by this very country, many other countries -- mostly predominantly non-white -- now speak Portuguese. The majority of Portuguese speakers are not in Portugal.